Some very cool research from scholar Blake Wilson, who's written a fair amount about PKD, and is scheduled to be a guest at the 2024 Dick-Fest in Fort Morgan, Colorado. Blake has tracked down an obscure picture of the WWI observation cupola that Dick compared to the face of evil he saw in the sky while living in Pt. Reyes.
Wilson writes, "In a June 7, 1964, letter to James Blish, Dick mentions that the "Palmer Eldritch" face in the sky looks just like the WWI armored observation cupola pictured on pages 62 and 63 (sic; the correct pages are 68-69) of the June 5, 1964 edition of Life magazine. (Dick, Selected Letters 1938–1971, p. 78)
Dick writes that the image is "precisely what I saw"; in the sky during his experiences.
Check out the issue of Life Magazine here.
(His father Edgar's gas mask, another WWI related life event also fits into this scenario)
Thanks, Blake.
PKD told Bill Sarill it "was an accidental overdose of Tofranil that led to his seeing a looming evil face on the horizon for three days in 1963. Tofranil (imipramine) was the first antidepressant made available in the US, in 1959."
2 comments:
Can any tell me what they know about PDK’s aunt Marion / Marian?
Marion was an artist, an about seven years younger than her sister Dorothy. She married a cowboy named William Tex Conroy in 1936, but divorced soon after. She eventually married another artist named Joe Hudner. Marion had sporadic mental health episodes where she felt she was choking. After she gave birth to twins, her episodes became more severe. She was diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia and institutionalized. Dorothy attempted to treat her with alternative therapies. Marion died of a pulmonary embolism. She told Dorothy she felt like she couldn't breathe and Dorothy worked to reassure her she was fine. Phil's anger over Marion's death was another aggravating element in his relationship with his mother, and may have proven a motivation to leave Berkeley and move up to Point Reyes.
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